Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship - BLCF Church
A Church with a vision in the heart of Toronto.

Some 75 years ago, a group of believers embarked on a mission to bring the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Bloor Lansdowne area in a relevant and meaningful way. The membership moved into a converted truck garage on Bloor Street near Lansdowne Avenue in 1938 establishing the 'Church of the Crusaders'. More than seven decades later the church, known today as Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship or just BLCF Church, continues to meet the challenges of actively preaching and practicing the message of the gospel in relevant and meaningful ways to the local community, such as Bloor Lansdowne Community Dinner, renamed December 2009 as BLCF Cafe, a weekly Community Dinner feeding over 150 homeless souls weekly, over 7,500 annually. BLCF Cafe was established in January 2008 by and is run under the auspices of our church with the help of a dedicated core of volunteers. The Bible says that a church is not mortar, brick and wood, but the body of believers who gather together to worship, pray, sing, teach and celebrate God’s path of salvation, through accepting Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross at Calvary.Our Web page: http://www.blcfchurch.ca

As we approach the completion of the house renovation at Bloor-Lansdowne, we have been seeing God work in exciting ways. The week started at worship on Sunday at the Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship. They are a small inner-city congregation with a BIG heart. On Sunday there were about 15 people in attendance in a sanctuary that seats about 300. The walls could use a coat of paint, and the sound system was acting up. By most external measures, it would appear to be a church in need of some help. While it is true that every church needs each member to lend a hand, the true measure of this church is what goes on when the worship service is over. When the Sunday Morning worship is finished, another congregation uses the facility-- a congregation made up of deaf individuals. At other times during the week, a Portuguese congregation, and later a Spanish congregation use the same facilities to offer praises to the same Lord who understands every language.

Then on Wednesday evenings, the church fills up again. This time, it fills with the grateful chatter of nearly one hundred hungry people who enjoy the hospitality the church offers during their "Community Dinner". Dignity, Love and Respect are on the menu here. It is not a "soup kitchen". It is not a "food giveaway". It is a community dinner. Free to all who enter. It is a hot meal personally served at the table to every person that walks in the door. It is fellowship and friendly conversation with anyone who desires it. It is a gift of a week's supply of bread to those who ask. It is an hour's worth of entertainment by a talented folk singer. It is an evening of dignity displayed toward any person that enters. No questions asked except one: "Can we serve you?"

The contrast between Sunday and Wednesday is striking. On Sunday, fifteen people humbly bowing their heads and praying to the Father and listening to teaching from God's Word. On Wednesday, those same people reaching out to scores of needy people with a hot meal and the Love of Jesus. It is a ministry of love that quietly speaks volumes directly into the lives of the neediest people of Toronto. And I think Jesus smiles down on the Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship.

But that is not all. This small church also owns the house that we have been renovating to use as the home base of our ministry. On Sunday they told us that they have decided to let us stay even longer than originally planned.It will allow us to stay throughout the entire year of 2011. This is a huge answer to prayer! We figured we would have to move out before next summer so the church could use it for other ministry purposes. We thank the Lord for their continued generosity and their service hearts.

So Saturday is a day of rest. And Sunday will be a day for worship. We are not exactly sure with whom we will be worshiping, but the true worship demonstrated by the Bloor Lansdowne Christian Fellowship will not be far from our thoughts.

James 1:27: "Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world."

The invention of fire had a profound effect upon our world. Fire brings us heat to counter the cold, cook our food and to illuminate our surroundings. Fire enabled members of society to work through the night and led to the advancement of the civilization of mankind.

The first use of fire is lost in prehistory and the subject of much conjecture and speculation. According ancient mythology, Prometheus stole fire from the gods and gave it to mankind. Fire was likely first discovered by accident event, as a result of natural causes, such as volcanic eruption, ignition of marsh gas or more likely from a lightning strike.

There are numerous references in the Bible to the use and significance of fire. In most scriptures that associate fire, we observe a manifestation of the power and presence of God. We find a clear example of His power and presence in this morning’s Scripture from 1Kings 18.

A severe drought and famine in region of Samaria led to God’s Prophet Elijah facing off against some 450 prophets of the god Baal. Elijah was critical of the people wavering between this god and the true Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.

Elijah proposes to the people the building of two altars, each with its own sacrificial bull. To one, the prophets of Baal will call upon the god Baal to ignite the wood of the altar. And with the other, Elijah will call upon God, Jehovah, to ignite to wood. The people and the 450 Baal prophets accept the challenge.

For hours, the prophets of Baal called in vain, upon their god, Baal to ignite their altar. The prophets even resorted to cutting themselves to illicit a response from Baal. And no fire came; Baal did not reply.

Now it was Elijah’s turn. But to make things interesting, Elijah instructed the people to douse the offering and wood with four jars of water, not once, not twice; but three times!

I recall camping this summer and trying to ignite some wet wood. It was not easy. Just when you have some flames, the fire dies out.

The wood on the altar constructed by Elijah wasn’t just damp, being soaked by a dozen jars of water to the point that excess water collected in a trench surrounding the altar. But this did not deter Elijah’s faith, not deter him from calling upon God. Elijah had proceeded as the Lord instructed. He acknowledged the soveirnty of the Lord saying “I am your servant”. He asked that God would start the fire not as a response to a request to do the bidding of Elijah. Instead Elijah implored the Lord to start the fire to change the hearts of those who had turned away from God and to restore their faith.

God’s response was to send a fire of such intensity, that it not only consumed the offering, wood and stones, so all that was left was dust. And all the water, including that in the trench, had evaporated. God’s response was clear and definitive, leaving no doubt in the minds of the people of Israel. The people fell on their knees, acknowledging that “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.”

And the 450 prophets of Baal were executed. Such was the judgement of God. And afterword, the Lord kept His promise by bringing rain to end the drought.

If you look at the back of today’s bulletin, you will see a list of several instances in the Bible, where the power and glory of God is expressed in some form of flame or fire.

Most of us are acquainted with the Prophet Moses’ encounter with the Lord, who revealed Himself as a Burning Bush,

Moses and the Burning Bush

Exodus 3:1-6 (ESV):

The Burning Bush

3 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.

At the time of this account, Moses was 80 years of age. Having been expelled to die in the dessert by Pharaoh, Moses had lived the next 40 years as a shepherd, and had seen most that the dessert had to offer. But something had caught his eye. The English translations translate what Moses saw as a bush, but a more accurate translation of the Hebrew word seneh is brambles. While we could spend the rest of today’s sermon debating the inaccuracy of the translation and the merits of the original Hebrew over inaccuracies of English translations, such discussions have no real bearing on the lesson our Lord is trying to convey and only act as a distraction from the main theme of the passage. Now back to Moses.

Moses noted that while the bush or brambles burned, it was not consumed by fire. And when he drew close to the bush, Moses saw an angel in a flame of fire in the midst of the bush. And when the Lord had seen that Moses turned aside to see, God admonished Moses to not come closer and to remove his sandals, as the ground that Moses stood upon was Holy ground. And the Lord identified himself as the God of Moses father, of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God reveals Himself to Moses as a burning bush, the flames burning supernaturally without ceasing.

After God used Moses to deliver the Hebrew people from enslavement in Egypt, He did not forsake them, Exodus 13:21-22 (ESV):

21 And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night. 22 The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

We must remember that that light is not just a tool of mankind, but an expression of the presence of the Lord, Exodus 24:17 (ESV):

17 Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel.

But the fire and flame of the Lord is not only a source of comfort to the faithful, but will be an expression of God’s judgment upon those who are not of value to His Kingdom, considered to be like thorns and brambles, Isaiah 10:17 (ESV):

17 The light of Israel will become a fire, and his Holy One a flame, and it will burn and devour his thorns and briers in one day.

This same fire is as an expression of God’s ability to refine and cleanse us of impurity and filth, Malachi 3:2 (ESV):

2 But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap.

Refiners use fire to melt and separate precious metals such as silver and gold from non-precious metals found in the ore. Each stage extracts purer metal. And fuller’s soap is used in a process to wash and clean raw wool of impurities and odors.

We find a more direct description of the Lord’s fire, by John the Baptist in Matthew 3:11 (ESV):

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

You will note that the Prophet’sindicatesthat water baptism is an act we do for repentance, but only the Lord can baptize with the Holy Spiritand fire. So when the believer receives the Holy Spirit, the same fire which is an expression of God, also is received, Acts 2:1-4 (ESV) The Coming of the Holy Spirit:

2 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

So the followers of Jesus Christ are given the Holy Spirit as a Comforter and the gifts of fire which is the glory of God, Hebrews 1:7 (ESV):

7 Of the angels he says, “He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire.”

To better understand Hebrews 1:7 let us back up to the first four verses of Hebrew 1, Hebrews 1:1-4 (ESV):

The Supremacy of God's Son:

1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. 3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

In the above passage, we see that Jesus is described as the radiance of glory of God, and like a refiner purifying precious gold, He purifies us from sin, through His son, Jesus Christ.

In Matthew’s account of the Transfiguration of Jesus, we see that Christ is talking with two prophets, Moses and Elijah, who had experienced the power and presence of God by fire and flame. And we have an idea of this radiance in the description of Jesus in the account, in Matthew 17:1-8 (ESV):

The Transfiguration

17 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son,[a] with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” 8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

I believe Matthew’s of Transfiguration of Jesus gives us some idea as to how it will be with Jesus after our own resurrection. Just like Moses and Elijah, we will be able to see our Lord, present in all His glory; radiant and full of light, bright like the fire of the sun. May this vision ignite a fire of passion and faith to share with all those around us the love of God as is expressed in the gospel of Jesus Christ, for this is the Savior’s final commandment our Lord gave to us. For it only takes a spark of faith, to ignite the fire that is found in the presence and power God’s love.

Let us pray...

Hymn #484: Pass It On (It Only Takes a Spark)

Benediction (Numbers 6:24-26): The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

2 Comments to BLCF Church Message for Sunday July 28, 2013: ‘Baptised with the Holy Spirit and the Refiner's Fire'

You raise some interesting questions and reveal some interesting traps of taking scripture literally. I will not post scripture referenced for my reply to your comments for baptism.

Let me remind you of the account of Nicodemus who thought being born again meant crawling back into his mother's womb to be born again in the Spirit! And we read later that Jesus referred to himself as the bridegroom and his church as the bride (John 1), from which some people take the words literally to indicate, (erroneously), that Jesus had a wife?

You may also recall the followers of Christ (following the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000) who sought Jesus, not for spiritual nourishment but to get another free meal. Jesus rebuked the crowed saying if you eat from the flesh and blood of the Son of Man (Christ) you will never hunger. The crowd taking the words literally thought Jesus thought our Lord was taking about literally eating flesh. But even the disciples thought what Jesus said was too harsh to accept. That was before the day of Pentecost, so we may forgive the disciples misunderstanding.

On the day of Pentecost, our Lord had instructed those who believed to gather in the Upper Room, not at the river Jordan or other body of water to receive the Holy Spirit.

And Peter preached the message of salvation in the Upper Room to those who received the Holy Spirit after hearing the message of salvation. No water baptism was recorded for the Spirit to come to the believers!

In Galatians 2, Peter the "rock of the church" had to be corrected by Paul from the mistaken practice of circumcising the gentiles before they were permitted to convert to the Way of Christ. In other words, Peter thought one must convert to Judaism before converting to a Christian. Fortunately, the Spirit helped Peter understand his mistake and the practice was stopped.

Baptism in water is a good symbolic demonstration of being born of the Spirit, but it is one's faith that is necessary to be born again. You can baptise people all day long and without faith, none are born again. While baptism is a good way for believers to demonstrate, symbolically being born again in the Spirit, only faith will give the assurance of being born again in Spirit, which was observed to alight upon the believers as a flame and a mighty wind not a dove as the Spirit to Christ (John 1:32-34). The difference was Jesus Christ, part of the Holy Trinity, the Godhead sent the Holy Spirit as a companion to believers. In Genesis Jesus, was present at creation, as the alpha and omega. Jesus already had the power of God at creation, long before being baptised.

Many Christian churches promote the idea baptism and communion as the only instructions of faith practice to believers. On one hand they insist on following precisely the actions of Jesus by having the same total immersion baptism as performed by John the Baptist, however they waiver on the practice of communion by the modifying the elements of communion, substituting juice for wine and often leaven bread for unleavened bread. In other words being literal in one aspect (baptism in water) and not in the other (communion of wine and unleavened bread). The importance of communion is to remember the sacrifice of the broken body (bread) and blood that was shed (wine) by Jesus until he returns. Again, it is the faith aspect that is important not whether the communion elements are identical to what was served at the Passover table. People can take the elements of communion and if they do not believe, the action is meaningless.

Salvation does not come from acts of baptism or partaking communion. Salvation, being born again in the Spirit, and partaking communion are meaningless without faith. Salvation is a gift not of works lest we boast. Water baptism and communion are works. It is the faith that makes such works significant. I am only saved through faith and accepting the gift of salvation and sanctification through Jesus, who died for my sins on the cross. And I must then agree, being a new person born of the Spirit, to follow the Way of Christ, (his teachings, sharing his gospel), until Jesus returns.

Consider a person who is lost in the desert, with no water, and accepts Jesus as Lord and Saviour, and then perishes from thirst without being able to be baptised in water. According to the "must be baptised in water to be saved" belief, that person, having not been baptised in water, would be denied salvation! Only a Nicodemus would come to such a conclusion.

The big danger to a "Christian" who presumes that one is more righteous or superior to others who are not baptised in water, is the tendency to judge others and to "elevate" oneself, which echoes the Lesson of the Goats and Sheep told in Matthew 25:31-46. It is how we treat others, particularly the sick, the oppressed and the poor, that we will be judged, not how we promote what we mistakenly think God expects us to do or act to be saved. Salvation and the Holy Spirit come from faith.

Thanks,again,for posing some questions which may help seekers and perhaps some Christians understand the importance of faith, not works, in order to receive the gifts of salvation and the Holy Spirit.